Ishikari Nabe

Celticevergreen's Note:

Hokkaido is Japan’s northernmost island. It’s cool temperatures and wide open spaces have given it a reputation for great farm products, especially dairy, corn, and root crops like potatoes, onions, and carrots. It’s bountiful seafood, like salmon and crab, are also famous throughout Japan. Ishikari nabe is a tasty hotpot that combines some of these famous products in a miso broth accented with melted butter.

• Total Time: 45 mins
• Prep Time: 30 mins
• Cook Time: 15 mins

Ingredients:

Servings: 4

• 1 lb salmon fillet
• 6 tablespoons salmon roe (ikura)
• 4 large leaves napa cabbage
• 7 ounces bok choy , root parts trimmed off
• 2 leeks , chopped (white portion only)
• 1⁄3; cup enoki mushrooms
• 4 shiitake mushrooms
• 1 cup frozen corn kernels , blanched
• 2 medium potatoes
• 0.667 (1 1⁄16; lb) package firm tofu
• 1 ounce arrowroot starch noodles (kuzukiri)
• 4 slices steamed fish cakes (kamaboko)
• butter , to taste
• 1 quart dashi stock
• 1 ounce red miso
• 3 ounces white miso
• shoyu , to taste
• sake , to taste
• mirin , to taste

Directions:

1. Scale or skin the salmon, remove the ribs and belly lining, and use hone-nuki to pull out the bones (you will find them along the center line and near the head end of the fish there are also pin bones in the thicker back side of the fillet). Cut the fillets into large bite-sized pieces.
2. Marinate the ikura in a mix of water, shoyu, and sake (4 parts/1 part/1 part).
3. Steam the potatoes for about 30 minutes. Cut the potatoes into 1 inch thick slices, cabbage, naga-negi, and tofu into large bite-sized pieces. Cut the bottom end from the enoki mushrooms and divide into small sections if they are stuck together.
4. Soak the kuzukiri in hot water until softened.
5. Arrange salmon, vegetables, tofu, kuzukiri, and kamaboko on serving plates. Put ikura and butter in separate bowls with serving spoons.
6. Combine the dashi and miso in your nabe pot, stir well to dissolve the miso. Heat over high heat. Taste and adjust the seasoning with shoyu, sake, and mirin.
7. If you want to serve your nabe tableside, put the nabe pot on a portable burner and arrange the remaining ingredients around the pot. Each diner can put items they like in the pot. When your food is cooked, put it in your bowl with some soup and top it with some butter and ikura.

Reviews

[David43515]

I live in Hokkaid, so when I saw a recipe for a dish named after one of our local neighborhoods I had to try it. It was great! Our winters here are long and cold ( I kid you not, from some parts of Hokkaido you can goto the beach and look across at Siberia!)so hotpot meals like this are very popular. We run a small resturaunt near the Rusutsu ski resort and we`ll probably add this to our winter menu. Thanks for sharing!